New variation SF19 F1 Lotus

[fixer]

All the theories on this lotus are fascinating, the background to the creation may never be known safety colours, food, in house promotional by lesney a 3rd party decal everyones guess is as good as the next guys or we could sit back look at it for what it is, a very cool find by Mick pat him on the back and say well done

[misterpop]

Agreed................Nice mysterey to keep in mind though.......

[Idris]

...the 34d racer which ended up coming out in yellow as 2nd colour...

I've just been reflecting on this. It is very tempting to to see it as more than a mere coincidence, but I don't see where it leads us.

[SMS88]

...the 34d racer which ended up coming out in yellow as 2nd colour...

I've just been reflecting on this. It is very tempting to to see it as more than a mere coincidence, but I don't see where it leads us.

It leads us to the conclusion that 34d racers were probably not yet in production when these YUM YUM Lotuses were made and if the yellow Setras were painted at the same time as the YUM YUM Lotuses late 1970 or early 1971 then it also seems likely that more gold Setras were made once the yellow paint was used up because the metallic plumb ones didnt appear before christmas 1972 -early 1973 from my memories of what is one of my top 10 all time favourite Lesneys!
I have never seen a 34d racer with white primer + yellow candy coat,they all appear to be yellow enamel as on the baseplate of a #75 Alfa

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Mick, for the benefit of this thread and identifying models in general, do we know exactly when the 'Lotus-Yellow' Setra coach was introduced. It clearly is going to be 1970 into 1971, but if we can tie-it down even further such as early to mid 1971, this will give a definite reference point for the continuation of the search for info on this #19 Lotus variation.

Ghosty.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Additional to the above...

...I have looked at my only real source of reference to the little added 'TM' logo on the front of the boxes for 'Superfast' models of this period (1970-71), and have concluded that on the box for #24c Silver Shadow (with narrow 'Superfast' wheels), it was added during 1970, not only that, it appears to be late 1970, now given that the range consisted of so many models (75 perhaps!!), it is understandable not all the boxes would have been modified at the same time, but possibly in number order, so models in the number range of around #10, #11 and #12 (the Setra coach), are likely to have had their newer ('TM') type box earlier than models from later in the range, #22, #23 and #24 (the Silver Shadow) and while I have looked at pictures of the #12 Setra coach on a couple of websites including Christians to see what boxes are with the 'Lotus-Yellow' Setra coach, I want to see what other members think about this, can they prove the little 'TM' appears on the Setra coach box for the earliest colours, light Gold, dark Gold and the 'Lotus-Yellow'.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

Mick, for the benefit of this thread and identifying models in general, do we know exactly when the 'Lotus-Yellow' Setra coach was introduced. It clearly is going to be 1970 into 1971, but if we can tie-it down even further such as early to mid 1971, this will give a definite reference point for the continuation of the search for info on this #19 Lotus variation.

Ghosty.

I never saw any yellow Setras as a child so I have no idea when they first reached stores but they are rare enough to just be one medium sized run which would be somewhere between 200-500,000 examples. The best way today to evidence when they came out would be to look for yellow examples in blisterpacks and see which date cards were used - I havent seen any in blistercards that I can remember - anybody saved any photos of yellow Setras in blisterpacks? And has anybody got any gold Setras in any copyright 1971 or 1972 blisterpacks???

[Idris]

Surely the AIM or NAMC magazines will document when they were first spotted?

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Surely the AIM or NAMC magazines will document when they were first spotted?

Ideally yes, but I do not own any of those.
Regards blister carded models...these are a good way to define dated blister cards but not always the model inside. Once a design of blister card has been introduced, it will be used for another few years without any major design changes, it may only have the addition of registration marks or copyright detail changes.

The example below shows a 1970 dated blister card, but with a 1971 issued model inside (it has the wider 'Superfast' wheels, not the narrow wheels), so if you took this on face value, it would be wrongly identified as a model form 1970, so blister carded Setra coaches are likely to suffer from the same approach.

Now then, another way of looking at this is if the 1970 date only applies to when the "Matchbox" name was registered and that is why it is shown on this particular Rolls-Royce example and the blister card and it's enclosed model are from 1971, it works both ways, but...we know for sure that the name..."Matchbox" was a registered name long before any blister cards of this design were introduced, it became a registered name during 1966 or 1967 and only started to appear on the models boxes in 1968 (it had been a registered trademark for the purpose of international trading for many years before this), it is difficult trying to remember the difference between a registered name and a registered trademark, they serve different purposes.

A picture of a 'Lotus-yellow' Setra coach in it's blister card with an original dated price sticker still in-tact, would be of great help here...anyone got one...

GHOSTHUNTER.

[SMS88]

Surely the AIM or NAMC magazines will document when they were first spotted?

Ideally yes, but I do not own any of those.
Regards blister carded models...these are a good way to define dated blister cards but not always the model inside. Once a design of blister card has been introduced, it will be used for another few years without any major design changes, it may only have the addition of registration marks or copyright detail changes.

The example below shows a 1970 dated blister card, but with a 1971 issued model inside (it has the wider 'Superfast' wheels, not the narrow wheels), so if you took this on face value, it would be wrongly identified as a model form 1970, so blister carded Setra coaches are likely to suffer from the same approach.

...........................

A picture of a 'Lotus-yellow' Setra coach in it's blister card with an original dated price sticker still in-tact, would be of great help here...anyone got one...

GHOSTHUNTER.

I disagree because i happen to know that Lesney introduced a new card design each year - there are copyright dates 1968, 1969,1970,1971 and 1972 with the models being issued in a blisterpack that normally has the previous year not the current year as copyright date.The 1972 blisters lasted 3 years. There are very rare instances of copyright 1968 + 1969 blisters being used up in 1971 and 1972 when stocks of current ones ran out which means we know the 1970 & 1971cards were all used up within thesubsequent year but 1968 + 1969 were not.